) , and a small block of wood I bought labelled African Walnut that would do a neck, sides and four piece back, some EI Rosewood side offcuts for bindings and ebony for the bridge and headstock veneers.African walnut would appear to be Lovoa klaineana or Lovoa trichiliodes, and to confuse things it is a member of the genus Meliaceae - the mahogany family. It is a lovely wood to work with and according to Suzanna and my wife looks like Tigerseye - which is interesting as one of its common names is Tigerwood.
These instruments were named by my daughter Suzanna after the shape-shifting Scandanavian Water Spirits who played enchanted songs on the violin. If properly approached, they will teach a musician to play so adeptly "that the trees dance and waterfalls stop at his music." Not exactly a violin, but very similar tuning - GDAE or GDAD. The first one was called Nøkken and this one is called Nácken.
The design is the same as the first one - 579mm scale length with 14 frets clear of the body on a Martin Size 5 body. The tuning is GDAD and the strings I am using are 49, 32, 22w, 15. The sound is pleasing so far - the sitka is more on the "fundimental" side of spruces I have used but it works well on the instrument and it will be interesting to hear how it opens out. These are real fun session instruments.
This time I got to do a soundclip. These are useful to do early in an instruments life (the strings went on last Friday) as you can go back later and compare. I find that there are tunes lurking in each instrument that seem to come out when you noodle around on them for the very first time. This one is appropriate to the ANZLF as it came out as a "loose" version of "Botany Bay".
Some pictures:
Top bracing (lutz spruce):
Back bracing (lutz spruce):
Thanks for looking and listening.
